


For You, My Liege, I Bend My Knee

by navaan



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Character Death, Character Study, F/F, Ficlet, Fix-It of Sorts, Hurt/Comfort, League of Assassins - Freeform, Mild Sexual Content, Non-Graphic Violence, POV Female Character, complicated romance, murder for love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-31 12:46:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6470482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a price to be paid to take your rightful place. At least there is for Nyssa, but she didn't expect to have someone else pay it. But this is Sara's choice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For You, My Liege, I Bend My Knee

**Author's Note:**

> Written for this [37 basic plotlines](navaan.livejournal.com/232257.html) meme from ages ago for the prompt “Sara/Nyssa, sacrifice of one's self for an ideal” by daria234. Super sorry that life made me forget all about it until now. ;P I'm seriously catching up with stuff!
> 
> You can also read this story and comment on it on Livejournal [here](http://navaan.livejournal.com/261872.html). Feel free to friend or contact me there.

She's not good at following rules. She's never good at bending her knee. All her life she's been the rebel, the younger sister who had to live up to Laurel's example, the daughter who despite everything can't keep in line. It had taken her world to crash and burn – or, well, _drown_ \- to make her realize that she had never really been doing more than playing at rebellion. 

She'd learned that the hard way, by bending, by being destroyed and rebuilt, by being destroyed again and rebuilding herself. She died. Once, twice, and then finally for real – and not even that had been enough to keep her down. She wasn't playing anymore, but learning, hardening, had not come easily.

And here she was now, coming back to the woman she loved once again. Yes, here she was now - after all she'd been through to get away from the League, to make Nyssa see her as her equal, after all she'd done to rebuild herself and fight for her own freedom, to stand tall and proud and truly herself – bending her knee.

“My liege,” she said, going down in front of a room full of watching assassins who were holding back, waiting for some kind of cue for what they were supposed to do. The blood on the floor was still fresh and the lifeless eyes of Malcolm Merlyn, once the usurper Ra's al-Ghul, were staring up at Sara, no hatred left in the gaze. He'd had her murdered once through the hands of his unwitting daughter, and she'd just returned the favor by her own hand – but not for herself. “I'll accept your judgment,” she said loudly and in the formal language, invoking the codex of the League, making everyone in the room take notice and pay attention. “Ra's al-Ghul.”

She looked up to meet Nyssa's gaze that was resting upon her, calm and collected, distant as was appropriate for the new leader of the League. She was holding her bow at her side and a dagger in the other hand, and there was nothing but love in her gaze, when she raised her arm to strike. 

Sara had known it was coming.

It was what had to be done.

What both of them had known from the start had to be done.

* * *

Late at night, Nyssa came to her. “I'm sorry, my love,” she said as she slipped into bed with her, molding herself to Sara's naked body.

“It was necessary.”

“You can't stay with me, Sara. I'm so sorry. You have to hide.” She pressed a soft kiss against her neck, breathed against her hair. “I love you, Sara, but you're dead again. They need to believe it for now. We need to fool them until I can be sure of my hold on the League.”

“Don't worry, Nyssa,” she said and tried to shift in a way that would not upset her wound. They had staged her death, but fooling a room full of trained assassins had involved actual injury. “We knew this would happen. We did what we had to do.”

“And I will always,” Nyssa whispered, “ _always_ , remember, what you did for me.”

“You are where you should have been all along. Your father was a fool not to see it and Merlyn was an idiot to stand in our way. You'll rebuild the League into something better, Nyssa, because you _are_ better. Better than Malcolm. Better than your father. You can make it all better.”

“But it will take time, beloved. And I can't do it alone.” Her arms tightened around Sara and she pressed her face flush against her naked back, holding on.

Sara reached out to press a hand over one of Nyssa's and squeeze. “You'll never be alone, Nyssa. I'll always be there in the shadows. Especially now that I'm a ghost.” She turned in Nyssa's arms, forced her lover to move with her, and kissed her, turned it fierce, turned it rebellious and fiery, turned it into everything she was and had always been, playful and angry, ready to belong somewhere, strong, in love. 

“My love,” Nyssa sighed and covered her body with her own. 

The pain in her side was nothing compared to the joy of connection, to the knowledge that this was Ra's al-Ghul now, and she had made her, as much as Nyssa had once made her the Canary. 

She opened herself up now to receive her, and to know forever that she was Nyssa's as much as Nyssa was hers.

She would bend her knee again for this woman, for the leader of people, kiss the ground she walked on. Until then, she'd be the shadow lover, the hand of the demon ready to strike from the dark, unseen and more dangerous than anyone else. She'd be a protective ghost and see to it that Nyssa had time to mold the League in her own image.

Sara Lance could keep to rules, if they were the right ones.

“My liege,” she whispered in Nyssa's ear and groaned and came on her lover's clever fingers. 

She could keep to these rules for love.

**Author's Note:**

> You can also find me on [tumblr ](http://navaan.tumblr.com/). This fic has a post [on there](http://navaan.tumblr.com/post/142313241429/ficlet-arrow-for-you-my-liege-i-bend-my-knee) in case you want to comment/review/reblog there. [My ask box](http://navaan.tumblr.com/ask) is open if you have questions.


End file.
